“People think, increasingly it appears, that we shouldn’t be doing this. Well, let me start by saying we haven’t lost a single American in this war,” McConnell said. “Most of the money that we spend related to Ukraine is actually spent in the US, replenishing weapons, more modern weapons. So it’s actually employing people here and improving our own military for what may lie ahead.”

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/4085063

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[–] c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world 37 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They'd have been fucked.

Everyone wants to joke about Russian military tech but the Ukrainian forces were operating on outdated technology prior to massive NATO overhauls.

The US likely wanted to field modern weapons against Russia so we could 1. Clear out our back stock of older inventory (which Mitch just admitted, basically) and 2. See how said inventory stacked up in a real war against Russia, since we have basically just been fighting rebel insurgents for the last 30 years of warfare and don't have a good representation of what our modern equipment would be capable of against an actual standing army.

[–] Ryumast3r@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Ukrainian soldiers in 2014 vs 2022.

The U.S. and allies, despite what a lot of people say (usually something like "why haven't they helped since the war actually started in 2014") helped transform the Ukranian military into the capable fighting force it is today, and the work started years ago.